Good Riddance to Silent Demons
by MizukageCrystal
Summary: Ever wonder what its like, growing up beside, and traveling with, your ex best friend, trying to find him and yourself? Mizukage Crystal learns exactly what that means. Follows the anime, except with Crystal. Give me a chance? Summary blows, right?
1. Prologue

Hey guys! I hope this story is better than the first time I tried to write it. This is only the prologue, so its shirt. Guess what? This time, actual characters are introduced in the second chapter! -cheers- and the next chapters are MUCH longer than this. I tried not to give away too much but I don't think I said enough. Oh well, enjoy!

* * *

Takigakure's water mansion...  
Usually calm and peaceful...  
But not tonight.  
Below the main room, below the chambers, far below the ground, underneath the mansion, is a dungeon.  
In the dungeon, is a tea kettle.  
And in the tea kettle, is a monster.  
A monster derived from Takigakure's forests itself.

Ichibi no Shiro Tora.

The one-tailed white tiger.  
It is a fairly young demon, only captured half a century ago.  
Only the residents of Taki and Amegakure know about it.  
Hopefully.  
Anyway, in this dungeon, with the tea kettle and the monster, is an infant.  
An infant girl.  
Crying her eyes out.  
The door to the room opens and three men walk in. Three doctors.  
"I can't believe Lord Mizukage would do something like this..." The youngest one proclaimed.  
"It is not your place-"  
"To his own granddaughter, Akiru!!"  
The man who was cut off, Akiru, sighed.  
"It doesn't seem fair, does it? To make the next heir, a female, nonetheless, a Jinchuuriki. Damned from the beginning..." His voice trailed off.  
"Let's get this over with already. I don't want to be here any more than you two do." The first doctor stated.  
"Alright then." Akiru picked up the tea kettle, fear gleaming in his eyes. Clatters, clashes, and snarls were echoing with excitement inside the kettle. The monster knew it was about to be released. Akiru gulped.  
The second doctor picked up a knife and stood next to the infant.  
"This isn't right..." The young one murmured to himself, standing on the other side of the girl. The baby quieted and looked pleadingly into the doctor's eyes, as if saying, 'Don't let them do this to me.'  
A tear rolled down the young doctor's cheek as he put rubber band after rubber band around the baby's left shoulder, to cut off the circulation. The baby whimpered and then screamed as the second doctor began to cut into the shoulder of the infant girl. After many slices Akiru put his hands inside the tea kettle. He winced as he pulled out a bright purple light. A large growl echoed through the dungeon. As he held his hands to the opening in her arm the tiger's spirit sank into the body of the girl. The girl shivered and shook in her demon-induced seizure. Minutes later, her body calmed, and she cried no more.  
The baby girl opened her mouth and gave a long, content, purr.

Hours later, two people in the living room had had enough.  
"Where is my baby?!" A woman with long, silken blue hair cried.  
"There, there." A man, obviously her husband, wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sure our Crystal will be fine."  
"Crystal...my little Crystal..." The mother cried.

And thus, Mizukage Crystal's life was changed forever.


	2. Reminiscing in the Park

Hey you guys! the font got bigger...well, on my end it did. What did you think of the prologue? Not that great huh? Well, time to meet the real Crystal. You hear alot about her past here. I'll stop babbling so you can read

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: It's my story, If i want people to wear denim, they will wear denim! Anything can happen because in my inner Naruto anime, ANYTHING is possible! MWAHAHA! -cough-

* * *

Love begins at the home.  
Yeah right.  
I walked down the streets of Suna, just me and my twelve-year-old self. Being alone was fine by me, since that was how it usually was.  
I flipped my long, straight brown hair behind me, but it got in my face again. Oh well. Deal with it, Crystal.  
A rare breeze blew in and ruffled my denim jacket, along with my denim pants.  
I tugged at the bottom of my jacket, which wasn't much considering it ended where my ribcage is.  
You must be wondering why the heck I'm walking around a desert with all this denim on. I must be burning up, right?  
Wrong.  
My jacket is pretty much a 'half-jacket'. It ends at my ribcage and the left arm doesn't have a sleeve. But that's my doing. I like showing off my birthmark. The kanji symbol for tiger.  
It keeps people off my case.  
So, with only a black sports bra and fishnet shirt under this jacket, it's not all that hot.  
My legs are a different story. The denim of my pants almost covers my feet.  
Anyway, I'm walking alone.  
I passed by the park. A man and a woman were pushing what must've been their son on the tiny swing, careful that he didn't fall. The boy was screaming in laughter and yelling to go higher. The couple had broad smiles on their faces, relishing the boy's entertainment.  
I sneered and looked at the ground.  
If my life were different, that could have been me. If I hadn't had a sadist for a grandfather (or a Mizukage that is,) I might've had that happy lifestyle. If I didn't have to live as a Jinchuuriki, condemned from the start, I might've been happy. If things hadn't gone terribly wrong with my demon when I was six, and the tiger hadn't killed my sadistic, Mizukage grandfather, things definitely would have been different.  
But no, I DID HAVE a sadistic Mizukage for a grandfather. My demon tiger DID kill him when I was six. I DID run away to Suna. I am STILL shunned, because they know what I am.  
So, trust me, I've already kissed that forgotten happiness goodbye.  
I looked back at the playground. The boy had gotten off of the swing and the parents were dragging him away, paranoia radiating off of them.  
They had spotted me.  
I walked over to the very swing the boy had just left behind. I smiled, recalling my own memories of this swing.

_ When I first came here, as a runaway, I had come straight to the park. I saw the swing and went to sit down, tired from my journey. I swung solemnly back and forth, already dreading my decision to flee Takigakure. I was getting lonely, until I heard the cries of the village children on the other side of the park.  
__"Way to go, dude!"  
__"We don't know any justu to get it down!"  
__"I guess the game's over."  
__"Let's go home, then."  
__The children had kicked one of their playground balls onto a roof. I sat there, contemplating whether I should use my water to retrieve the ball. As I was getting up to walk over there, I heard them shriek.  
__"Oh no! It's him!"  
__"He's gonna kill us!"  
__"What does he want?!"  
__"RUN!!"  
__It looked like a boy had already retrieved the ball from the roof. I didn't see how, but it seemed like he was trying to be friendly and give them back their lost ball.  
__The children didn't think so; they seemed petrified of him.  
__They began to run away from him, and the boy got an anguished look on his face. The anguish turned to anger and he screamed at them.  
__"Don't run away! Please! COME BACK!!"  
__With that last shriek, the ground around him seemed to well up with the boy's pain and manifest in it. The sand reared and went after some of the kids, what looked like against the boy's will. It dragged a few down and a girl screamed.  
__"It's hurting me!! HELP!!"  
__A man suddenly jumped in the middle of all of it.  
__He looked down at the boy.  
__"Gaara-sama. Please stop this. Don't hurt anyone else..."  
__The boy looked back.  
__"Yashamaru..."  
__And so, the mystery boy's name was Gaara.  
__Yashamaru picked up the young girl and said that he was to take her home and that Gaara was to stay in the park. After the man left, Gaara picked up something he had dropped, a bear; it looked like, and walked toward me, staring solemnly at the ground the whole way.  
__I had stayed frozen in front of the swing, staring at the action scene in front of me. When the boy was right in front of me, and he realized he was staring at somebody else's shoes, he looked up in surprise, and dropped the ball, that I didn't realize he was still holding, and the bear.  
__"You're...Gaara?" I had asked. Very carefully.  
__"You...don't know who I am...do you?" He was prodding at my curiosity.  
__"Not really. I ran away from home. I just...ended up here." I smiled.  
__"I didn't think I'd ever seen you before. No wonder you aren't running away, screaming in terror." The boy glanced at me again, studying my face.  
__"Why would I do that? The kids that just ran away must have problems. You don't look dangerous to me."  
__The boy glared at me for half a second then he smiled.  
__"So, you'll play with me?!" He grinned.  
__I cocked my head and looked at him. Big, black rings around his pupil-less, turquoise eyes, tousled red hair, a red tint to his cheeks. A cute kid. I smiled.  
__"Of course!"  
__We had started to throw the ball back and forth.  
__"Well, as you know already, I'm Kazekage Gaara."  
__I caught the ball, but stopped dead in my tracks. It finally clicked. Gaara. Kazekage Gaara. One of the other Jinchuuriki. Just like me.  
__"Oh...you're..."  
__"So you have heard of me."  
__"It's just..."  
__"Scared?"  
__"No...Not at all...I'm just like you."  
__"What?"  
__"My name is Mizukage Crystal, and I am the Jinchuuriki from Takigakure."_

I looked at the sky, remembering the joy that I had felt when I found him. I remembered the talk my father had given me on my sixth birthday, after asking why I couldn't have a birthday party like normal kids. He sat my on my bed, and the speech began.

_ "Crystal-chan..."  
__"Yes, daddy?"  
__He looked at me with sorrow glimmering in his eyes.  
__"Daddy is sorry that you can't have a birthday party."  
__I frowned.  
__"It's fine that I can't, but I want to know WHY I can't."  
__"Well...people in this village...don't take too kindly to demons."  
__I watched his eyes stare down everything in my room. Keeping them busy so they wouldn't have to meet my own.  
__"And...They especially...don't like yours."  
__Tears welled in my young eyes.  
__"So...people don't like me?" I fought back a sniffle.  
__"No. They just don't like Tora."  
__"Oh." I said, pretending to understand for my father's sake.  
__"That's a good girl. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow is your first full day of being six."  
__He kissed my forehead and left my room.  
__That night, I cried myself to sleep.  
__That was the first night that I went to sleep knowing how hated I was.  
__That night, I realized how alone I was._

I was swinging higher now, like my anger was standing behind me, pushing me. I was entering the memories that were so sensitive to me. I thought back to the time where I first met Gaara's father.  
Gaara's father, who was more sadistic than my grandfather was.  
And that's definitely saying something.

_Gaara and I were happily tossing the ball back and forth, chatting about our pasts, when Yashamaru came back.  
"Gaara-sama! What are you doing?!" He ran over to where we were, planning on saving another life. He stopped altogether, though, when he realized that I was in no danger.  
"Yes, yes, I know. I shouldn't be playing with him. He's dangerous. I don't know what I'm doing. But I'm fine and we're having fun. So cool your jets." I cut him off before he could ever start.  
Gaara snickered.  
Yashamaru smiled.  
"Where did you come from, little girl?" The man looked down at me.  
"CRYSTAL-chan came from Takigakure. She ran away." Gaara looked disapprovingly at Yashamaru.  
"Yeah, and mister, don't even think about sending me home, 'cause I'm NOT going back." Gaara and I continued to toss the ball back and forth.  
Shock masked Yashamaru's face.  
'Takigakure?! That's all the way across the globe!! Unless you go across the ocean…but…That little girl? There's no way…' He thought.  
"Let's go home, Gaara." Yashamaru put his hand lightly on Gaara's right shoulder. I looked at Gaara, then Yashamaru, then back to Gaara. He was leaving me?  
"What about Crystal-chan, Yashamaru? She doesn't have anywhere to go! Can we keep her?!" Gaara's face lit up at his own epiphany. I scowled. He talked as if I were a dog.  
"Now, Gaara. That's entirely up to your father. And did you even ask Crystal? She may not want to stay." Yashamaru seemed wary about me.  
"Crystal-chan? Do you want to see if you can stay with me and my brother and sister?"  
I looked at Yashamaru. He didn't seem too happy about my appearance in their village. But it wasn't as if he was just going to let a little six year old girl rot away in the streets of Sunagakure if he knew about it.  
"Sure!"  
__And so we went, off to the Kazekage mansion; which, by the way, is HUGE. Yashamaru spoke to Mr. Kazekage himself, who was skeptical, but decided that he wasn't going to leave me on the streets and would let me stay with Gaara in his room. That seemed a little selfish to me, considering the hundreds of guest bedrooms that he probably had, but it wasn't like I was in any position to complain.  
__"Come on! You have to meet my big brother and sister!" Gaara grabbed my hand and drug me downstairs to the main room of the house.  
__Temari and Kankurou.  
__The first time I met them, they fell completely in love with me. Well, Temari did.  
__"Oh! She's so cute!!" Temari wrapped me in a big hug and cuddled me like I was a teddy bear. "Yay! I get a little sister!" She stopped and looked at everybody. "You know. Theoretically.  
__Yeah. They didn't adopt me. But I was allowed to live with them, as long as, according to the Kazekage, I trained to become a sand ninja. That was fine with me. As far as I was concerned…_

_ …I no longer belonged to Takigakure; Village Hidden within the Waterfalls. _


End file.
